THURSDAY DECEMBER 4

 

Position at 2320 GMT 16 deg 07.67 north 48 deg 18.97 west

 

Approx 742 miles to go.

 

It’s Mark’s birthday today and he started it in fine style on the midnight to 3am watch by getting soaked to the skin by a rainstorm that crept up behind him unnoticed.

 

Sunrise helped dry him out and Dave presented him with a magnificent gift from the rest of us – a Terry’s chocolate orange wrapped up in silver foil. We posted Mark a card but it hasn’t arrived yet.

 

After a few hours crawling along in just a breath of wind we launched our Parasail when the wind finally increased and raced away for hours at 8 knots with the boat totally steady. You could have played snooker on the deck.

 

The Parasail has enabled us to change our course a little, so we’re no longer pointing at Trinidad and we’re heading a little bit north of Barbados.

 

Tomorrow’s weather forecast is for heavy rain, so we’ll be sending Mark out on deck at every opportunity.